Though there had been earlier efforts, like Ealing Studios’s Dead of Night from 1945, the horror anthology film came into its own in the 1960s with titles like Kobayashi Masaki’s Kwaidan and the Poe-centric Spirits of the Dead from directors Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini. Hammer Films’s rival Amicus churned out no fewer than seven of them in a 10-year period starting with Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors. But the one that really got the omnibus rolling was Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath from 1963, an Italian-American co-production that resulted in two different versions of the film.
After the success of 1960’s Black Sunday, American International Pictures took a more active hand in producing several of Bava’s later films, altering them in the process to suit American audiences that tended to skew younger. The Aip cut of Black Sabbath rearranges its three segments, tones down some...
After the success of 1960’s Black Sunday, American International Pictures took a more active hand in producing several of Bava’s later films, altering them in the process to suit American audiences that tended to skew younger. The Aip cut of Black Sabbath rearranges its three segments, tones down some...
- 10/16/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
“And On The Eighth Day Bava Created Color.” That’s my sentiment with every new quality restoration of a Mario Bava picture. This amazing new disc of Il Maestro’s teeth-clenched Viking epic delivers stunning action scenes and eye-bending widescreen fantasy visuals. Arrow’s Blu-ray is spiked with a new Tim Lucas commentary.
Erik the Conqueror
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Dyaliscope) / 90 min. / Street Date August 29, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Alice & Ellen Kessler, George Ardisson, Andrea Checchi, Françoise Christophe, Raf Baldassarre, Joe Robinson, Folco Lulli.
Cinematography: Mario Bava, Ubaldo Terzano
Film Editor: Mario Serandrei
Original Music: Roberto Nicolosi
Written by Oreste Biancoli, Mario Bava
Produced by Ferruccio De Martino
Directed by Mario Bava
Far too good to be slammed as a mere imitation of Richard Fleischer’s The Vikings, Mario Bava’s exciting Erik the Conqueror is one of the best of the Italian-made...
Erik the Conqueror
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Dyaliscope) / 90 min. / Street Date August 29, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Alice & Ellen Kessler, George Ardisson, Andrea Checchi, Françoise Christophe, Raf Baldassarre, Joe Robinson, Folco Lulli.
Cinematography: Mario Bava, Ubaldo Terzano
Film Editor: Mario Serandrei
Original Music: Roberto Nicolosi
Written by Oreste Biancoli, Mario Bava
Produced by Ferruccio De Martino
Directed by Mario Bava
Far too good to be slammed as a mere imitation of Richard Fleischer’s The Vikings, Mario Bava’s exciting Erik the Conqueror is one of the best of the Italian-made...
- 9/19/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mario Bava turns from spooky gothic tales to a relentlessly violent murder spree in the glossy world of high fashion. The large cast gives us a fistful of prime suspects, while the main draw is Bava's powerful direction and razor-keen images - and in this excellent transfer, the colors can only be described as hallucinatory. Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video U.S. 1964 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 89 min. / Sei donne per l'assassino / available through Mvd Entertainment / Street Date July 5, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Thomas Reiner, Ariana Gorini, Dante Dipaolo, Mary Arden, Franco Ressel, Claude Dantes, Luciano Pigozzi, Lea Lander, Massimo Righi, Francesca Ungaro, Giuliano Raffaelli, Harriet White Medin. Cinematography Ubaldo Terzano Editor Mario Serandrei Original Music Carlo Rustichelli Written by Marcello Fondato, Giuseppe Barilla, Mario Bava Produced by Alfredo Mirabile, Massimo Patrizi <Directed by Mario Bava
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
When Arrow Video released a U.K. Blu-ray...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
When Arrow Video released a U.K. Blu-ray...
- 7/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Kimberly Peirce bravely brings out the ultimate American high school experience from the much-loved Stephen King/Brian De Palma classic
Click here to see the Stephen King infographic
First question: Carrie, why? Possible answers: the remake rights were just lying there, like as not. And it's been a profitable property several times over now, taking a circuitous, money-spinning four-decade journey through pretty much every medium of popular entertainment: a huge bestselling print debut for Stephen King in 1974, the much-beloved 1976 Brian De Palma adaptation, fancied nowadays as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, a Broadway musical adaptation in 1988, a pretty trashy sequel in 1999, a 2002 TV remake intended as the pilot for a series that was never picked up (nice work as Carrie's mom by Patricia Clarkson), and now a wholesale big-screen remake from Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Peirce (my compulsive penchant for completism compels me also to...
Click here to see the Stephen King infographic
First question: Carrie, why? Possible answers: the remake rights were just lying there, like as not. And it's been a profitable property several times over now, taking a circuitous, money-spinning four-decade journey through pretty much every medium of popular entertainment: a huge bestselling print debut for Stephen King in 1974, the much-beloved 1976 Brian De Palma adaptation, fancied nowadays as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, a Broadway musical adaptation in 1988, a pretty trashy sequel in 1999, a 2002 TV remake intended as the pilot for a series that was never picked up (nice work as Carrie's mom by Patricia Clarkson), and now a wholesale big-screen remake from Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Peirce (my compulsive penchant for completism compels me also to...
- 11/25/2013
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
We've updated our Film4 Fright Fest line-up story with tons of images. Read on to see what you may have missed and what's brand spanking new! Dig it!
Programme - Screen 1
Thursday Aug 23
Opening Film - The Seasoning House (World Premiere)
Special make-up prosthetics and splatter genius Paul Hyett makes his directorial debut with a harrowing exploration into tense claustrophobia, hard-hitting action and rollercoaster suspense. In a Balkan brothel, where girls kidnapped by soldiers in war-torn zones are prostituted to the military and civilians alike, Angel (Robin Day) is the deaf mute orphan enslaved to care for the inmates. But unbeknownst to her captors, she moves between the walls and crawlspaces of the seasoning house planning her escape. Psychological horror in the nerve-shredding Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski style but with an ultra-modern twist.
89 mins Director: Paul Hyett UK 2012
Rosie Day – Angel
Sean Pertwee – Goran
Kevin Howarth – Viktor
David Lemberg...
Programme - Screen 1
Thursday Aug 23
Opening Film - The Seasoning House (World Premiere)
Special make-up prosthetics and splatter genius Paul Hyett makes his directorial debut with a harrowing exploration into tense claustrophobia, hard-hitting action and rollercoaster suspense. In a Balkan brothel, where girls kidnapped by soldiers in war-torn zones are prostituted to the military and civilians alike, Angel (Robin Day) is the deaf mute orphan enslaved to care for the inmates. But unbeknownst to her captors, she moves between the walls and crawlspaces of the seasoning house planning her escape. Psychological horror in the nerve-shredding Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski style but with an ultra-modern twist.
89 mins Director: Paul Hyett UK 2012
Rosie Day – Angel
Sean Pertwee – Goran
Kevin Howarth – Viktor
David Lemberg...
- 7/3/2012
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Craig from Dark Eye Socket here with Take Three. Today: Boris Karloff
Take One: The Mummy (1931)
Always the consummate character actor, Karloff gave us the most splendidly memorable characters. Famously one of the world’s biggest and best horror icons (along with Lugosi, Chaney Jr., Price and Lee, the frightful five), he played his beasts, ghouls and undead wanderers in exemplary fashion. Take his Imhotep/Ardath Bey, the titular bandaged one in director-cinematographer Karl Freund’s 1931 classic The Mummy. Ten years after being awakened by a group of foolhardy archaeologists Imhotep intends to revive his ancient Egyptian love Princess Ankh-es-en-amon with the help of reluctant modern-day babe Zita Johann.
Museum-based murder and an ancient parchment (the Scroll of Thoth!) cause all the the mummified mysticism. Karloff even has his own Pool of Fate (essentially a steamy bath/psychic porthole), into which he can see anyone and anything, anywhere; and via...
Take One: The Mummy (1931)
Always the consummate character actor, Karloff gave us the most splendidly memorable characters. Famously one of the world’s biggest and best horror icons (along with Lugosi, Chaney Jr., Price and Lee, the frightful five), he played his beasts, ghouls and undead wanderers in exemplary fashion. Take his Imhotep/Ardath Bey, the titular bandaged one in director-cinematographer Karl Freund’s 1931 classic The Mummy. Ten years after being awakened by a group of foolhardy archaeologists Imhotep intends to revive his ancient Egyptian love Princess Ankh-es-en-amon with the help of reluctant modern-day babe Zita Johann.
Museum-based murder and an ancient parchment (the Scroll of Thoth!) cause all the the mummified mysticism. Karloff even has his own Pool of Fate (essentially a steamy bath/psychic porthole), into which he can see anyone and anything, anywhere; and via...
- 6/12/2011
- by Craig Bloomfield
- FilmExperience
New DVD celebrates the 80s heyday of video nasties - a genre that didn't quite corrupt the nation's youth … or its dogs
Hard to believe now, but back in the early 1980s Britain was under attack. A sustained attack from a foe more insidious and corrupting than anything that had assailed our shores before; a demonic force that destroyed our mental health, that could deprave all who came into contact with it. Highly scientific studies proved beyond all doubt the peril we were all in, especially our children and even our pets. This was the menace that came from something called a "Video Nasty".
There are two things you should know about that opening paragraph: firstly, everything in it was at one time believed by our leaders of the day (yes, even the bit about pets). And second, they were completely wrong on every count. It was a shameful period in our recent history,...
Hard to believe now, but back in the early 1980s Britain was under attack. A sustained attack from a foe more insidious and corrupting than anything that had assailed our shores before; a demonic force that destroyed our mental health, that could deprave all who came into contact with it. Highly scientific studies proved beyond all doubt the peril we were all in, especially our children and even our pets. This was the menace that came from something called a "Video Nasty".
There are two things you should know about that opening paragraph: firstly, everything in it was at one time believed by our leaders of the day (yes, even the bit about pets). And second, they were completely wrong on every count. It was a shameful period in our recent history,...
- 10/15/2010
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
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